


La Belle Morte

by Geonn



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Blood, F/M, Fights, Flashback, Nudity, Threats, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-02
Updated: 2011-09-02
Packaged: 2017-10-23 09:09:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/248626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1887. Helen takes it upon herself to deal with Nikola's latest scheme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	La Belle Morte

The morgue attendant was a dour young man with thick, dark hair. Helen tried not to look at him, and he paid her the same compliment. She was certain he was trained to give the bereaved their space. Helen wore widow's weeds and a black veil over her face, clutching her purse as she waited for the lift to reach the lowest floor of the hospital. The attendant pushed back the wooden grate and escorted Helen down a claustrophobic corridor to a tall steel door at the opposite end. He opened the door and she stepped into the frigid room.

The floor was like polished glass, with thick stone walls. There were a half dozen narrow windows just below the ceiling, revealing they were below-ground. Five tables were lined up in the center of the space, all but one of them occupied by a body. A waist-high tray of medical instruments stood next to one of the beds in anticipation of an autopsy.

The attendant checked the tags and motioned her over to the second bed in the row. He finally met her eyes. "You sure you wanna be here, miss? You don't haveta do this if ya aren't family."

"No. I have to." She nodded. "It's all right."

The man folded down the blanket and Helen looked down at Nikola Tesla's still form. She drew in a breath and closed her eyes, nodding at the attendant's unasked question. "Yes. Yes, it's him. Oh, Nikola, you foolish man..."

"I'll give you a moment alone."

"Thank you," Helen whispered. She waited until she heard the door close behind her before she moved. She crossed the space in three steps and flicked the lock shut so they wouldn't be disturbed. Then she rested her hand against the steel and shook her head. "Good luck explaining this one, Nikola."

He sat up, the sheet dropping away to expose his chest. The saber wound was still vivid and red on his chest. He looked down at it, smiled, and then swung his legs over the side of the table. "You would be amazed at the number of bodies that go missing from morgues in University towns. Blame Burke and Hare for that one." He stretched and grimaced as he worked out a kink in his back. "Morgue tables are not built for comfort."

Nikola slid off the table and wrapped the sheet around him like a toga. He threw the excess over his shoulder to hide the wound.

"You've traumatized poor Arthur for life."

"Poor Arthur." He whipped back the sheet on the next table. "He deserved it."

"Because he groped me in the library? Honestly, Nikola, the punishment should fit the crime."

She wished she had never told her friends about the incident. Arthur and his rotten breath, pressing her against the shelves as he struggled to get his hand under her skirts. She successfully fought him off, but she was frightened by how far he had gotten. To her dismay, the men in her life took it upon themselves to exact vengeance. Nigel began tormenting Arthur, haunting his dorm room as a vengeful spirit. John removed vital books and papers from Arthur's rooms. She wasn't sure what James had up his sleeve, but he had a notebook full of diagrams that Helen was scared to look too closely at.

And then there was Nikola. He challenged Arthur to a duel in the commons. Helen thought that Nikola simply planned to use his superior skill and strength to humiliate the man who had dared try to violate Helen's body. But she had been as shocked as everyone else in attendance when Nikola taunted Arthur into a powerful lunge. The sword had cut through Nikola's skin until the point emerged from his back. Nikola fell, and Arthur was immediately tackled by a dozen of the spectators.

"Where did the poor dear run to?"

"Most say France." Helen moved as Nikola continued to examine the bodies on the table. He went to the cooler and opened the door. "He's ended his studies, thrown away his future, and all for what? Because he became a bit handsy? You know I didn't want that."

"Yes, well, the bonus is that it's gotten me here. A treasure trove of full-blooded bodies waiting to be drained." He closed the cooler and turned to face her. He finally noticed the gun she had taken from her clutch, and his face went slack. "They sent you."

"They don't know that I'm here. Lie down on the table, Nikola."

He stepped closer to her. "You know a simple bullet won't do me in, Helen. Unless, of course, you aim for the brainstem. Or perhaps the throat? Get close enough to decapitate me? And how do you plan to explain it to the young man who just left? Grieving over your dear friend and then shooting his corpse in the head?"

"There's a Waiting Mortuary in this building, designed to prevent people from being buried alive. Superstition is strong enough I can simply say I was making certain you were gone." She moved back a step as he continued advancing. "Stop right where you are."

"I could reach you before you could pull the trigger. You know that, Helen."

"I'm warning you."

His smile returned. "That's all any of you do. Threaten." He was on her so fast that Helen didn't register the movement. He knocked the gun away as her finger tightened on the trigger. The bullet skipped off the stone wall and ricocheted off the steel. Helen was knocked back by Nikola's strength. Her feet were still on the floor, but the soles of her shoes skimmed over the slickly polished tile of the floor. She hit the wall with a cry of pain, and Nikola closed his hand over her throat. She could feel the pricking of his talons on her soft flesh and looked into his monstrous face. His eyes were onyx, his lips misshapen by the piranha teeth now filling his mouth. His skin had turned ghastly pale, and blue veins throbbed on his cheeks and at his hairline.

"Threaten me now, girl."

Helen struggled to keep her breathing steady. "Is this how you defend my honor?"

His nostrils flared and he moved his face closer to hers. "Maybe I took offense at someone infringing on my territory. Maybe I was angry Arthur had done what I had not." He leaned in and Helen recoiled, eyes closed as he drew close enough to breathe her scent. She bit back her cry of fright until it was just a pathetic whimper and turned her head away from him, but that just exposed her neck to his gaze.

"We are all of us monsters, Helen." His voice was calmed, his smooth Serbian accent riding on the current of vampire harmonies. "The Source blood has turned all of us into beasts. My need to drink blood to survive, James' insatiable thirst for knowledge turning him ever inward. Nigel's ability to literally remove himself from society." He lifted one finger and dragged the talon down her cheek. "Blessed John seems to be the only one of us who got off scot-free. A handy ability with no apparent downside, and the permission to do with you what James and I can only dream of."

"Nikola..."

"The four of you were so kind that first night. So understanding." He tilted his head to the side, narrowed his gaze. "You told me it was merely the bloodlust. None of us could have anticipated how strong it would be. How impossible it would be to restrain myself. That first taste of warm blood, how could anything else compare?" He leaned closer to her neck. "What would Blessed John think if he saw my marks on your throat? If he knew that I had penetrated you?" He pushed her harder against the wall and she could feel his erection pressing against her through the sheet. "If he knew I drank from you? Would he turn you away as tainted?"

The attendant began pounding on the door. Nikola half-turned, his eyebrow raised. "Perhaps a two-course meal."

Helen brought her hand up and, as he turned, she fired past his head. The flash of gunpowder blinded him, and the explosive gunshot was magnified by his superior hearing. He howled in pain and released her, recoiling as he clapped both hands over his ears. Helen ran from him, scurrying to the far side of the room. If she had tried the door, she would have endangered the attendant.

Nikola stood dazed before he lifted his eyes to her. He looked more animal than man, his shoulders hunched and his arms hanging. His skin was pale blue, his mouth hanging open to make room for his hideous fangs. He moved forward, the blanket still tangled around his midsection to conceal his nudity as he slid his feet across the slick tile.

"Clever. But not so clever you avoided being trapped in here. With a hungry vampire. What would your blood do to me? It revitalized John, cleared his mind... what would it do to me? Your magical blood." He licked his lips slowly. "I can only imagine what it would taste like. How about just a drop? An aperitif before the meal."

"Stay back." The knocking had stopped, and Helen assumed the attendant had left for reinforcements. "I'm warning y--"

"What happened to threatening? I haven't scared you, have I, Helen?" He shoved the empty table out of the way and it clattered as it fell.

"You're smarter than this, Nikola. Smarter than to behave like an animal."

He narrowed his gaze. "Appealing to my vanity? Clever girl. But it won't work. Perhaps I'll drink from all of you. Gain all your powers for myself. A brilliant, invisible, teleporting vampire... the world would be mine before the turn of the century. I could change you. We could rule this world as king and queen. Rule the world with me, Helen. Or die here in this morgue."

Something impacted the door from the other side. Nikola paid it no heed.

She continued to retreat, rounding one of the beds as Nikola stalked her. "Just come with me, Nikola. Let me help you, like I helped John. That's what I've decided to do. Help Abnormals--"

"Help monsters."

"Nikola..."

He pointed at the door. "Enough for both of us. I'll just take a little sip from you and it'll be done. Then you and I can feast on the cattle in the hall outside. We'll be powerful then, Helen. Powerful enough to take Blessed John, Brilliant James, Bashful Nigel... they won't even know what hit them. Oh, they would gladly die to feel your lips on their neck. By the time you bit down, it would be too late for them to fight."

"I told you my plan. My goal to help Abnormals." Her hip bumped the tray of instruments. "But I didn't tell you the whole plan."

"Enlighten me." He inched closer.

"Protect Abnormals from the humans who would hunt them and harm them. And protect humanity from the Abnormals who pose a threat." Helen grabbed one of the scalpels off the tray and swung it at him. Nikola lunged at her to knock it out of her hand, but the blade sliced along his palm. Nikola howled and fell back, but Helen gave no quarter. She brought the blade back down with the same motion and sliced across his chest.

Nikola had only been a vampire for a handful of months and his reactions were still those of a mortal. He retreated from the attack and Helen grabbed another instrument. She held the bone saw in her right hand and wrapped the fingers of her left hand around the base of the skull chisel. Blood seeped from the wounds on his chest, dripping down his arm from the cut in his hand. He eyed the tools in her hands as if gauging their ability to do harm to him.

"Could you really kill me, Helen?"

"To save myself. To save the men on the other side of this door, and my friends? Watch me."

Nikola pounced. Helen swung the bone saw and its serrated edge cut along his throat. Nikola fell to the side with a violent curse, clapping his uncut hand against the wound as he rolled onto his knees. "Another time, Helen. We'll do this dance again."

"I'm certain we will, Nikola. And I won't stop until you're no longer a threat. If that means putting you in a grave once and for all, then so be it."

"I look forward to it." He grabbed a tray of instruments and hurled it at her, and Helen retreated away from the flying blades and scissors. They hit the ground with an ungodly clatter, and Helen watched as Nikola leapt for one of the narrow windows. He shattered it with his fist, squirmed through the opening like a rat returning to its burrow, and disappeared into the night. The blood-stained sheet he'd been wearing as a toga fluttered to the floor.

Helen dropped as well, her legs stretched out in front of her and her hands resting palm-up between them. She could hear the people outside banging to be let in, shouting for the door to be unlocked, but she couldn't find the strength to get up and let them in. She needed to use the time to think up a story to explain what had happened. A story that would explain the missing body, the splatters of blood on the otherwise spotless floor, and the broken window.

While they tried to break through the door, Helen laid down on the floor of the morgue and closed her eyes.


End file.
